Cutting down and Acu-Rite Glass Scale

i cut several scales with a diamond tile cutter. once i used just a die grinder they all work fine and your reader does not go to the edge.

I cut three AcuRite ENC-150 scales succesfully using a hot wire to crack the glass. I drilled a small hole tangent to the face of the scale thru the top of the extrusion. A piece of SS wire (about .030, I think) was threaded thru the hole and across the face of the scale with the extrusion clamped upside down (open side up, seals removed) in the vice. The TIG welder made a convenient power source to heat the wire using the foot pedal to control the current, but I'm sure there area dozen other kluges that would work fine.

I held the wire angled away from the scale coming out the open side of the extrusion with the welder's electrode holder, stepped on the pedal til the wire was glowing, then swung it into contact with the scale. A squirt of water from a wash bottle made sure the glass fractured. Then I cut the extrusion with a hacksaw. The glass in the ENC-150 scales is held in with silicone, so you can cut the extrusion such that the glass stops short of the end of the extrusion. The silicone bond on the stub piece of glass is easy to break. Or you can make two cuts in the glass and cut the extrusion in between. Leaving the glass recessed allows the original end caps to be reused.

Ned Simmons

Ned Simmons wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.suscom-maine.net:

Ned, where did you get the stainless wire? How long did you hold it agains the glass? If I read this correctly, you let the wire get red hot, put it against the glass for a period of time, removed it and then right away sprayed it with some water? The glass fractured right where you applied the wire?

Just wondering how long this takes and whether or not just heating a piece of steel cherry red (a 6 penny finishing nail) and then putting it to the glass would work.

Interesting way of approaching it, makes sense.

Marty